The contacts in the connectors that are used in storage devices are generally firmly secured on the passageways configured on the mating parts. During the mating of a header connector with a complementary socket connector, the contacts at the tip of the mating part of the header connector get abraded as a result of the shear stress on the header connector's contacts by the complementary socket connector's contacts when the two connectors engage. Similar shear stress and abrasion occur when the two connectors disengage during the un-mating of the connectors. Repeated abrasion of the contacts during the mating and un-mating process wear the contacts which ultimately may result in an electrical connection failure. Conventional storage device connectors are designed to withstand an average life of 500 mating cycles.
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (also referred to as SATA) connectors and Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) (SAS) connectors are examples of disk interface technologies in use.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,743,060, 6,331,122 and D469,407 disclose a type of SATA header connector which is to be mounted on a printed circuit board, a type of SATA socket connector which is to be mounted on a printed circuit board and an electrical connector assembly with a SATA connector as a part, respectively. U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,934 teaches a type of SAS connector.
The SAS header connector has generally the same configuration as the SATA header connector except that the SAS connector has a third tongue plate on which a third set of signal contacts are assembled on the surface opposing to the surface where the first two sets of contacts (including one set of power and one set of signal contacts) are assembled. In doing so, a SAS connector is compatible with a SATA connector and users have the ability to integrate either SAS or SATA devices and reduce the costs associated with supporting two different interfaces.